Soul Food series (part three)
“An Embodied Faith”
Small group devotion
The purpose of this discussion is to challenge your group to think about what the resurrected life looks like. It will hopefully open up topics like death, heaven, resurrection and how we understand our bodies in relation to these things.
What are some popular images of the after-life, heaven, and the resurrected life? To get discussion started, you might like to watch this short clip:
Read Acts 1:1-11. As you read the account of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, think about how this compares with popular images of heaven, resurrection, and after-life? What does it say? What doesn’t it say?
What does this passage say about Jesus’ resurrected body? (Leaders might like to guide discussion particularly towards vv.3-4, 9, and 11)
Watch this video clip about “Honouring the Body” from 0’00”–3’15”. I encourage leaders to watch it first.
Evelyn Parker talks about honouring the communal body of Christ. What impacted you about what she said? What challenged you?
How does Acts 1:1-11 speak about the communal body of Christ — the Church? (Leaders might like to direct conversation to vv.4-5, 7-8, 11) What does it mean to honour this body?
Watch the rest of the video clip (3’15”–6’27”)
What impacted you from this clip?
What does the resurrected life look like for you? (Leaders might like to guide conversation through Acts 1:1-11 or the Luke passage (Luke 8:40-56))
What might honouring your body have to do with the all of this?
Discuss practical ways as a group that you can live into and honour this resurrected body (both communal and individual) during the week.
Pray that the Spirit might heal our broken bodies and restore them. Pray that as individuals we might learn what it means to be part of Christ’s body.
Leader’s notes: Underlying this discussion is the theological assumption that the resurrected life is something we participate in now. Not fully — but neither is it some far distance reality up in the clouds somewhere. Jesus’ whole self (body and all) was ascended which means the human body has somehow been written into the fabric of eternity! Wow…that has big implications for what we do with our bodies.
When we talk about honouring our bodies, we need to firstly talk about Christ’s body which is honoured in eternity. Secondly, we need to talk about the communal body of Christ, the Church, which is formed and sustained by his Spirit. We need to honour this body through our participation, welcome, love, service, and belonging. Thirdly, we need to talk about honouring our individual bodies as places where the Spirit of Christ dwells, as living examples of the resurrected life taking hold of our physical reality.
So often when we talk about honouring the body, we get very practical e.g. don’t drink, don’t do drugs, don’t have sex before marriage, do get a good night’s sleep and eat well etc. etc. There may be good reasons behind these things, but without a rich theological foundation, these are just rules to be broken. If we understand our bodies as Jesus’ resurrected life breaking into the present, then what we do with them suddenly becomes much more important.